Bautista starts French visit in good shape

Spanish star on top in final Friday outing at Grand Prix de France.

Mapfre Aspar rider Álvaro Bautista’s best time of 1’39.302 on the penultimate of his 25 laps of Le Mans was enough to make him the number one 250cc attendee at the Grand Prix de France on Friday afternoon.

Rain had disrupted the MotoGP session shortly beforehand but the track soon dried out, and Bautista started the weekend in the best possible way, lapping 0.113s ahead of championship leader Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing).

Meanwhile, the Spaniard’s Aspar colleague Mike di Meglio looked comfortable again in third place, trailing his team-mate by less than two tenths of a second.

Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team Aprilia) and Metis Gilera’s World Champion Marco Simoncelli finished fourth and fifth fastest, both suffering crashes in the session.

Thomas Luthi (Emmi – Caffe Latte) and Roberto Locatelli (Metis Gilera) both went round within a second of Bautista’s best time, whilst Mattia Pasini (Team Toth Aprilia), Álex Debón (Aeropuerto Castello-Blusens) and Lukas Pesek (Auto Kelly – CP) also finished in the top ten.